TEMPLATES FOR RECORDING, TRACKING

TEMPLATES FOR RECORDING, TRACKING, ANALYSING
AND REPORTING PUPIL PROGRESS
USER GUIDE
All rights reserved to Ecarda Ltd 2016
Tracking, recording and reporting progress
The Government introduced a new National Curriculum to be taught in schools from 2014. As part of that reform, the old system of ‘levels’ used to report
children’s attainment was removed. The new National Curriculum sets out ‘age-related expectations’ of attainment by the end of each year and/or key stage.
For Reading, Writing and Mathematics we have interpreted the National Curriculum requirements and proposed expectations for each year.
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At the end of Year 1, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of a 6 year-old.
At the end of Year 2, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of a 7 year-old.
At the end of Year 3, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of an 8 year-old.
At the end of Year 4, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of a 9 year-old.
At the end of Year 5, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of a 10 year-old.
At the end of Year 6, children will be assessed against the age related expectations of an 11 year-old.
Schools already use an age related expectation in Foundation Stage and, at the end of Foundation Stage 2, pupils are assessed against Early Learning Goals which
are the age related expectations of a 5 year-old.
At the end of Foundation Stage, schools are required to report nationally each child’s attainment as “emerging”, “expected” or “exceeding”, in relation to the age
related expectation for 5 year olds.
At the end of Key Stage 1 schools are required broadly to report nationally each child’s attainment as “below standard”, “working towards standard”, “at standard”
or “mastery standard” in relation to the age related expectation for 7 year olds.
At the end of Key Stage 2 schools are required broadly to report nationally each child’s attainment as “below standard”, “working towards standard”, “at standard”
or “mastery standard” in relation to the age related expectation for 11 year olds.
For the purpose of tracking pupils’ progress and reporting regularly to parents through each year and through each key stage we have introduced across the school
the 12-point scale already used successfully in Foundation Stage. These 12-point scales break into smaller parts the broad 3 or 4-point national reporting scales
referred to above.
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The tables below show the relationship between the in-school scale expressed as numbers and the national scale expressed in colours:
The scale used through Foundation Stage has been in place since September 2013. The example shown below is for Foundation Stage 2
When your child's development is compared with the END of Foundation Stage 2 national standard your child is assessed as ……….
EARLIER PHASE
EMERGING
EXPECTED
EXCEEDING
below 30
30-50 em
30-50 exp
only just
emerging
emerging
Just below
expected
Just at
expected
At expected
Confidently
at expected
Just above
expected
Exceeding
expectation
Well above
expectation
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
The scale used through Key Stages 1 and 2 (Years 1 to 6) from September 2015. The example shown below is for Year 4
When your child's learning is compared with the END of Year 4 national standard your child is assessed as ……….
BELOW
WORKING TO
AT STANDARD
working on
material
earlier than
previous
year
programme
working on
previous
year
programme
beginning
to access
current year
programme
working on
some of
current year
programme
working on
most of
current year
programme
working on
all current
year
programme
competent
in some of
current year
programme
competent
in most of
current year
programme
-2
-1
0
1
2
3
4
5
MASTERY
competent
in all of
current year
programme
mastered
some of
current
programme
& beginning
to work on
next year
programme
mastered
most of
current
programme
& working
on some of
next year
programme
mastered
all current
programme
& working
on most of
next year
programme
6
7
8
9
Whilst teachers will be assessing children on a day-to-day basis in order to check knowledge, skills and understanding so that appropriate learning pathways may be
planned and navigated, there will be four summative and synoptic assessments made each year for the purpose of reporting to parents and evaluating learning
progress across the academy.
Summative assessments, using these 12-point scales, will be made for every child in all aspects of Reading, Writing and Mathematics in September (baseline),
December (end of term 1), March (end of term 2) and July (end of term 3). In all cases, including for the base-line, the END OF YEAR expectation set out in the
National Curriculum Attainment Targets will be the point of reference for making the assessments in each National Curriculum strand.
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Given that the assessments are made against the END of year expectations, it is likely that most pupils will start at the left hand end of the scale and progress
steadily towards the right. This progress is shown graphically on the reports sent to parents. An example of a March pupil report is shown below:
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THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE FOR SCHOOL USE ONLY
DESIGN PRINCIPLE
These pupil progress interactive templates are designed to maximise information outputs from minimised data inputs. Teachers should have access to all the
reports that refer to the pupils they teach.
COPYRIGHT
These interactive worksheets are owned by ECARDA Ltd. Schools who rent these worksheets own the data and the reports produced. Ecarda provides a round-the
clock service to schools renting these templates and responds to queries at no extra cost. Furthermore, requests to produce additional or different reports are
dealt with quickly and, for the most part, within the rental agreement.
CONVENTIONS
There is a common system of tab coloration: school input sheets are green (all other sheets are fully protected as read only, except code inputs). Pupil reports are
red. The user may call up the report of any pupil by typing in that pupil’s reference number, pressing return and then save. If a hard copy is required, this may be
printed directly from the Excel sheet. If an individual report is to be saved it should be saved as a PDF document. If comments are written directly onto the report
sheet, these should be deleted after printing or saving as pdf. Yellow reports refer to the whole year group and give a pictorial overview of attainment and
progress. The purple sheets are overall cumulative reports, giving more detailed analyses of overall attainment and progress at subject strand level. The blue
sheets are pupil level reports showing attainment and progress at pupil-group level, including by set, prior attainment and SEN.
SYSTEM CONTROLS
The headteacher permission code allows for the following changes:
On the pupil detail sheet below, the column headings from column G onwards may be altered to suit local circumstances though the user should be aware that
associated reports will then refer to these revised characteristics.
The gold calibration tab presents the descriptors associated with each of the 12 points on the -2 to 9 scale. These may be altered. This would feed through
automatically to all data entry sheets and reports. Clearly, this action should be undertaken only at the year start as recalibration mid-year would invalidate all
progress measures.
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GREEN-TAB: INPUTTING PUPIL DETAILS
At the start of each academic year the school administrator will load up the pupil information templates shown on the first green (input) tab for each year group.
An example of a ‘loaded’ pupil information sheet for a Year 4 cohort is shown below.
This ‘single’ entry will populate all the four pupil assessment entry sheets for the year and will inform the individual, pupil-group and year-group reports.
If a pupil leaves mid-year all the information, other than the reference number, should be removed. The information about a pupil joining the school mid-year
should be added at the bottom of the list and not inserted in any gap created by a mid-year leaver.
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GREEN-TAB: INPUTTING PUPIL DATA
At each data entry point/time the school should open the appropriate Class Record (green tab) and enter their assessments referring to the scale at the top of the
page.
For the purposes of data accuracy, integrity and security the school may present to teachers these data-entry templates, or something similar, as stand-alone
sheets generated on their own-school management information systems, such as SIMS. The school data controller or administrator will transpose the data onto the
template below which is integrated into the Ecarda pupil progress tracker and reporter.
For the purpose of this demonstration, the data required to be entered are shown in red. Notice that the pupil information has already transferred onto this sheet
and the relevant National curriculum strands are already loaded. The actual templates extend considerably to the right to accommodate up to 70 pupil entries.
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THE TWELVE YELLOW-TAB REPORTS
After the data have been entered for September, a set of ‘baseline reports’ are produced instantly and automatically. Click on the tabs at the bottom: “Sept all”,
“Sept gender” and Sept PP” to see three baseline pictures for the year group.
Now go to the red tab and click on “Individual Sept”. This opens an individual pupil baseline report. Put a pupil reference number (see the pupil information sheet) in
the yellow box next to “Ref:” and press “Save”. It will look like that on page 3 of this guidance but will include only the baseline spider graph.
These baselines will remain on all the reports as the year progresses and after the December, March and July records are entered. This allows the learning progress to
be graphically demonstrated at year group and at individual pupil level.
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These pictures show the through-year group progress after the July data have been entered.
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THE EIGHT PURPLE-TAB REPORTS
As well as the reports above, a set of “cumulative reports”, situated
at the start of the Excel workbook and denoted by purple coloured
tabs, are automatically produced. These are designed to assist in
evaluating school performance and are particularly helpful in
reporting to governors, inspectors and other bodies to whom the
school may be accountable. Over the year, as the termly records are
entered, these report show, in various ways the rate and nature of
pupil progress. This first report shows progress in Writing after all
the termly records have been entered.
Similar reports are produced for Reading, Mathematics and Overall
progress.
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This report shows, for each National Curriculum strand, the
proportion of pupils at “below”, “working towards”, “at standard” or
“above standard/mastery”.
The data are presented for “all pupils”, “girls”, “boys”,
“disadvantaged” and “not disadvantaged”.
There is a table for each data entry point: September, December,
March and July.
This allows an ‘at a glance’ view of hot and cold spots in terms of
subject areas as well as pupil groups.
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This table uses the average points score (on the 12 point scale) and
calculates the gender and disadvantaged gaps for each National
Curriculum strand.
By identifying exactly where the largest gaps are, effort can then be
targeted to the appropriate place in order to reduce them.
The term by term presentations allows the effectiveness of ‘gap
narrowing’ strategies to be evaluated.
By comparing term-on-term tables, progress rates may be inferred at
both strand level and pupil group level.
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This table summarises the data in the table above and represents it
at “subject” rather than “strand” level.
Again, the gaps are evident, as are the changes in those gaps over
time.
In the example on the left it may be inferred that progress overall in
mathematics moved from 0.03 to 3.83 – a shift of 3.80 points.
Other in-year progress rates can be as simply calculated.
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This table, activated only at the end of the academic year, represents page 12 showing start-of-year, end-of year, and then a
“difference” table which gives an at-a-glance summary of how gaps
may have increased or decreased over the year.
This information may support teacher’s annual appraisal as well as
the school’s annual self-evaluation.
Critically, it informs areas that may need to be worked on as pupils
move on to their next year.
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THE TEN BLUE-TAB REPORTS
These reports give detailed pupil-level information which accumulates through the year.
The first report on page 17, is the whole year cohort showing attainment in Reading, Writing and Mathematics at each data entry point and progress
from the start from the second data point onwards. This page is “filter enabled” and allows searching by any one or more of the pupil characteristics.
When filtered, averages for filtered groups are automatically created.
All the other blue reports are actually pre-filtered outcomes to bring out attainment and progress details of particular groups of pupils.
The page 18 report is filtered by English and mathematics sets. Whilst levels of attainment (mean score on the 12-point scale) would be expected to
reflect the particular sets, the progress made should be neutral (or even inverted). Progress is presented in two ways:
a) As the difference between current average attainment and the average attainment at the year start;
b) As the number of pupils who are making particular numbers of individual points progress.
This set-level performance data provides useful evidence in progress evaluation meetings with teachers.
Other blue-tab reports are annotated on the pages below.
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This page 19/20 record stratifies the Year cohort into low, middle and high attainment-on-entry bands. Prior attainment refers to the start of key
stage attainment and the information will have been entered onto the pupil information sheet as on page 7 above, in columns M, N and O. The
example shown on this page and the page above refers to Reading. The pupil tracker includes Reading, Writing and Mathematics.
Both measures of attainment and progress are presented and averages are calculated as shown.
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Many schools identify pupils whose learning requires extra support or intervention.
Tracking these groups allows the effectiveness of intervention to be evaluated. Pupils who require intervention are “flagged” on the pupil information sheet in
columns P, Q and R and reports on their progress are automatically generated as above.
While the example shows Writing, the pupil tracker also produces reports for Reading and Mathematics.
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Some schools wish to monitor the progress of pupils who they identify as gifted or talented. A G&T flag may be entered on the pupil information sheet (see page 7)
in column O
A specific G&T report is automatically generated as above. The report considers outcomes in mathematics but this can be adjusted to include Reading and/or
Writing by getting in touch with editor@ecarda.co.uk
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This final blue record on refers to all pupils on the SEN register for that year group.
Progress and attainment measures are as above. For those pupils classified as SEN(K), an average is calculated. Pupils classified as SEN(S) are listed
but no averages are calculated because such a measure would carry no valid meaning
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POINTS FOR CONSIDERATION WHEN USING THESE TEMPLATES
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How should / could the different year blocks overlap (see page 3)
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What in general, is the expected rate of progress over a year, using the 12-point scale?
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How do you differentiate this expectation for vulnerable groups? For example, higher for Pupil Premium?
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How do you weave these expectations into the use of these reports and the progress evaluations?
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Which reports do you present to governors?
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How do you ensure that teachers have access to all the reports that refer to the pupils they teach?
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How do you ensure data security and integrity?
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How do you protect the template security and copyright?
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NOTES
From users
We are choosing to enter pupil data half termly (and then overwriting them at the end of term). We use the
“half-termly reports” as the basis of discussions between teachers and leaders in order to evaluate progress
and review teaching and intervention strategies.
The reports produced from the Ecarda templates were sufficient to answer all the pupil progress questions
posed by an Ofsted inspector.
The individual pupil reports are a real hit with parents.
From the editor
One challenge has been explaining to schools how these Ecarda templates are for synoptic summative
assessment data. They are not the day-to-day formative teaching planners – of which there are many in
the market place. “Aggregating” the data on these day-to-day trackers does not necessarily produce the
helicopter view of where a pupil actually is. The day-to-day trackers may inform but not determine
periodic synoptic and summative assessments.
Please send your comments to editor@ecarda.co.uk
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